Wild-Card Rules Change for Wimbledon

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, April 22, 2003

The Lawn Tennis Association has changed its wild-card selection guidelines for Wimbledon.

Traditionally, most of the eight men's and women's wild cards are given to British players. But this year, the LTA said the four "most deserving" men's players ranked in the top 350 would get a wild card and two more would be selected after an eight-man playoff.

For the women, the LTA would chose four players, and four others would have a playoff for one spot. The remaining wild cards for both will be made by the All England Club's championship committee.

"The LTA gets criticized for just giving it away, but we want to get away from that," LTA performance director David Felgate said Wednesday. "I think it sends a hard message to players who might be expecting them."